When you set the example, campers follow
That is a returning cabin leader’s summary of the job, and her advice is more useful than most training manuals.
Be the weirdest version of yourself
The best advice anyone gives a new cabin leader has nothing to do with schedules or safety protocols.
“I always tell cabin leaders coming in is to be the weirdest version of yourself so that your campers have room to be as weird and unique as they are. With that strategy I got to see so many campers who came into night one shy and hesitant grow in their confidence over the week and form lasting friendships with other girls in the cabin who they didn’t know going into the week. Girls would start out shy and nervous to do motions in chapel or be open in worship times and by the end of the week we would all have our arms around each other praising God loudly and proudly. When you set the example, campers follow.”
Your coworkers become your home away from home
Seventy-odd people show up in May not knowing each other, then spend eight weeks living, eating, and working inside the same few hundred acres. Something happens.
“One thing I still mention often is how quickly your coworkers become your friends. You bond very quickly and they become your home away from home, your campers become family too. I still talk to many of my campers and have had campers go on to become staff and I love seeing those relationships grow into lifelong connections.”
Why people come back
A good share of every summer staff is here for a second, third, or sixth season. Ask them why and you tend to get two answers: the work, and the people they do it with.
“For me I already had a strong connection to camp prior to being on staff as my mom had been on staff for several years prior so camp already felt like a safe place for me. However, I kept returning because I love ministering to others and helping build the foundations of others’ faith journeys. Additionally, camp came to feel like a second home and my coworkers began feeling like a second family.”
Eight weeks from now
Training starts May 23. Eight weeks after that you will know what you are like when seven kids are watching how you handle a rained-out Tuesday, and you will have seventy people who watched you do it.
Families write in at the end of every week, and what they write about is the person who ran the cabin.
The basics
Staff training runs May 23–29 and summer camp ends August 8. Housing and meals are included. Stipend roles start at $275 a week and hourly roles start at $7.25 an hour, paid every two weeks.
The application takes about fifteen minutes, and a real person reads every one.
